All Maryland
September 20, 2003 09:05 PM | General
September 20, 2003
Bruce Perry returned to the field to score on touchdown runs of four and 12 yards and a smothering Maryland defense kept West Virginia out of the end zone until late in the fourth quarter for an easy 34-7 Terrapin victory Saturday night at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Md.
"Maryland's got a good football team and they played well and we didn't," said West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez. "I don't think our guys quit. I don't think we played well ... we didn't execute on offense or defense. When you do that against a tough team in a good environment you're going to get beat badly and that's what happened."
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| Miquelle Henderson catches a pass for 23 yards in the first half of Saturday's game at Maryland. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Perry, who sat out last week’s win against The Citadel, finished the game with 79 yards on 14 carries. Maryland quarterback Scott McBrien completed 14 of 25 passes for 220 yards and another score.
But it was the Maryland defense that was the story of the game. The struggling Mountaineer offense managed just three first downs and 56 total yards in the first half. It wasn’t until late in the second half that West Virginia was able to finally reach the end zone on a 13-yard run by backup running back Kay-Jay Harris.
West Virginia’s scoring drive was set up on a fumble recovery by backup linebacker Boo McLee at midfield. Harris got the bulk of the yardage on the drive with 34 yards on four carries.
By that time Maryland had the contest well in hand.
Maryland took the ball on its opening possession of the game from its own 20 and drove all the way to the WVU 34 before the drive stalled. Nick Novak’s 52-yard field goal sailed wide left. That was the only blemish for the Terps in the half. |274|
Maryland’s second possession resulted in a Bruce Perry four-yard touchdown run. The Maryland drive covered 52 yards in five plays with the big play being a Scott McBrien to Latrez Harrison for 34 yards to place the ball at the WVU five.
Maryland tacked on three more when Novak kicked a 41-yard field goal with 10:29 left in the second quarter. Novak’s kick culminated a 14-play, 64-yard drive.
The Terps expanded its lead with 2:23 left when Josh Allen crossed the goal line from three yards away. The key play on Maryland’s 79-yard drive was a 43-yard option keeper by McBrien.
Unable to move the ball, West Virginia punted the football back to Maryland with 57 seconds remaining in the half and the Terps starting at their own 47.
McBrien put Maryland back into business with a 23-yard hookup to Harrison, and another 14-yard pass to Derrick Fenner moved the ball to the WVU 16. Three incomplete passes forced Maryland to try a 32-yard field goal, which Novak hit to make it 20-0 at halftime.
West Virginia’s offensive struggles continued in the first half, managing just three first downs and 56 yards of offense. Of the three first downs, one came via a Maryland offsides penalty on third and three.
"When you only have the ball a handful of possesions you better do something with it to give yur defense a break and we didn't do that at all," said Rodriguez.
In the second half, the Maryland defense forced West Virginia to punt twice before adding seven more when it drove 36 yards in five plays, all on the ground. Perry covered the final 12 yards to make it 27-0, Maryland.
Maryland found the end zone on its next possession when McBrien hit Harrison for a 25-yard score.
Maryland piled up 498 yards of total offense and held West Virginia to just 156 yards. West Virginia quarterbacks Rasheed Marshall and Charles Hales combined to complete just three of 12 passes for 36 yards.
"We've got to get better at that position and we've got to get better at every position," said Rodriguez.
Quincy Wilson was West Virginia’s top ball carrier, claiming 71 yards on 20 carries. West Virginia’s longest offensive play was a 23-yard pass from Marshall to Miquelle Henderson on its second possession of the game.
The victory boosts Maryland’s record to 2-2 while West Virginia drops to 1-3. The Mountaineers are idle next week before traveling to the Orange Bowl to face No. 2-ranked Miami on Oct. 2.
|274|"I guess it's good and bad when you have to think about it for 10 days," said Rodriguez. "But I guess it's good because we've got a lot of work to do. Obviously we've got to go back to the drawing board and get things right."
Scoring Summary
UM – Perry 4 run (Novak kick)
UM – Novak 41 FG
UM – Allen 3 run (Novak kick)
UM – Novak 32 FG
UM – Perry 12 run (Novak kick)
UM – Harrison 25 pass from McBrien (Novak kick)
WV – Harris 13 run (Cooper kick)
Individual Statistics
Rushing: WV – Wilson 20-71, Marshall 8 -minus 11, Hales 4-16, Harris 4-34, Phillips 3-10, Total 39-120; UM – Allen 16-54, Perry 14-79, Maldonaldo 13-88, McBrien 5-43, Suter 1-1, Total 49-265
Passing: WV – Marshall 2-7-0-25-0, Hales 1-5-0-11-0, Total 3-12-0-36-0; UM – McBrien 14-25-1-220-1, Evans 1-1-0-18-0, Total 15-26-238-1
Receiving: WV – Wilson 2-13, Henderson 1-23, Total 3-36; UM – Harrison 4-88, Dugan 3-50, Walker 2-33, Perry 1-minus 5, Abiamini 1-8, Smith 1-18, Allen 1-19, Fenner 1-15, Parson 1-12, Total 15-238
Attendance: 51,973
